And the Oscar Goes to...Social Networkers

97% of female internet users planned to use social media while watching the Academy Awards

The 2014 awards season came to a conclusion last night with the airing of the Academy Awards, and a February 2014 study by Influenster found that more than nine in 10 US female internet users had planned to watch the event. Respondents didn’t plan to just watch the awards, though: 97% said they would use social media while viewing the Oscars.

The survey determined that US female internet users who accessed social media while watching cultural events on TV did so to see other people’s reactions or because it made the show more entertaining. More than half of respondents also logged on to social sites as they viewed events because it made them feel like part of a community.

Facebook and Twitter were the social networks female internet users were most likely to use during the Academy Awards, cited by 82.15% and 61.23% of respondents, respectively. More than four in 10 respondents said they were likely to interact with brands tweeting during televised cultural events, and an additional 48.42% said they would do so if the brand said something funny or interesting.

Results from a 2013 study by Harris Interactive gave some insight into why social media usage may be high during televised cultural events. More than half of US internet users, both male and female, said they watched awards shows live. Such viewers may get caught up in the excitement of the event and log on to social sites to follow consumers’ and brands’ comments about the event in real time.